English About this event
In the morning, Audrey Litterick (Earthcare Technical) will lead a workshop on making top quality compost. This will explore both the theory and practicalities of composting, covering a wide range of aspects including compost feedstocks, carbon to nitrogen ratio, air/water balance, structure, temperature, and how and when to use your own compost. We will visit the composting facilities at East Neuk Market Garden, and discuss some of the topics covered in the workshop.
In the afternoon, Clem Sandison (Alexandra Park Food Forest / LWA) will lead us through the basics of agroforestry design and fruit tree maintenance. We’ll discuss key considerations when integrating fruit trees in a market garden setting, such as spacing, aspect, soil preparation, rootstocks, pruning and the benefits of woodchip mulch. Outside, we’ll look at how to formatively prune young apple and pear trees.
These workshops will be participatory, with plenty of time for discussion and for sharing your own experiences and knowledge. There will be an opportunity to look around the market garden, and Connie and Tom from East Neuk will share with us their own composting processes and their plans to incorporate agroforesty into their horticultural production.
A locally sourced lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.
This event is open to market gardeners, farmers, crofters and new entrants living in Scotland, working the land at any scale.
A bit more about the speakers:
Audrey Litterick is a practical soils and horticulture specialist with a strong science background gained at both SAC and Aberdeen University. She helps clients develop and optimise quality products and by-products such as composts and anaerobic digestates. She also works with farmers and other land managers to ensure the safe, effective use of composts, digestates, animal manures and a range of organic wastes, by-products and products on farmland and in the restoration of land degraded through opencast mining. Key interests lie in the practical measurement of soil health and the development of methods to maintain and improve the health of soils. She has written and contributed to several guidance documents on the use of fertilisers and organic materials in crofting and small-scale horticulture, field-scale agriculture and horticulture and in the restoration of brownfield land. She is passionate about helping to provide people with the knowledge and skills to grow top quality produce for local supply.
Clem Sandison is a facilitator, artist and community organiser based in Glasgow. She currently works part-time for Pasture for Life, Landworkers’ Alliance and on a freelance basis, designing training, events and collaborative projects that enable peer-to-peer learning and the transition towards regenerative farming methods in Scotland. She has previously worked for The Orchard Project offering training and support to community groups across Central Scotland to co-design, plant and maintain local orchards. She’s the director of Alexandra Park Food Forest, a Community Interest Company and one acre growing space in the east end of Glasgow, where local residents come together to produce food, support biodiversity, and build social and ecological connections.
East Neuk Market Garden is a 2 acre, small-scale, agroecological farm growing over 50 varieties of vegetables, salads, herbs and fruit in the beautiful East Neuk of Fife. It was set up by Connie and Tom in 2018, with the aim of growing food to feed local people, and to do it in a way which enhances and regenerates rather than degrades the wider ecosystem. They grow as wide a variety of vegetables, salad, herbs and fruit as possible following agroecological principles.
This event is part of the LWA’s horticulture workshop series which aims to empower growers in Scotland to share knowledge and skills that support a transition to agroecology.
